David De Gea suffering from new contract syndrome after second gaffe in two games hands Watford win over Man Utd
DAVID DE GEA fluffed his lines for the second week running as his near post howler set Watford on the way to a much needed 2-0 win at Vicarage Road.
Today marked the 13th Premier League game in row in which Manchester United and De Gea have failed to keep a clean sheet - the last one coming on September 14, just two days before he signed his bumper new contract.
Having put pen to paper on the eye-watering £350,000-a-week deal, De Gea said: "Now my future is fixed, all I want is to help this team achieve what I believe we can and win trophies again, together.
"As one of the senior players in the squad, I want to support and lead in any way that I can to assist the younger players, so they know what it means to play here."
Well go on then.
Granted you need ten other talented players on the pitch to win trophies but it is impossible to ignore the Spaniard's slump since signing on the dotted line.
And we've seen it from so many players before.
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The 1-0 win over Leicester at Old Trafford was the last time De Gea collected his clean sheet bonus.
And his poor run since came to an ugly head in Hertfordshire this afternoon.
Ismaila Sarr's scuffed 50th minute effort bounced harmlessly up at the 29-year-old's near post and he somehow managed to let it slip through his gloves.
If you didn't know better, you'd think he'd been hanging out with the Prem's other Spanish 'El Howler' - West Ham's Roberto.
De Gea could do little with Troy Deeney's penalty which doubled Watford's lead just four minutes later but that's now two gaffes in two games for the man once backed as Real Madrid's next stopper.
Last week's error at Old Trafford in the 1-1 draw with Everton was not as clear cut.
Claims for a foul by Dominic Calvert-Lewin as De Gea went to punch a cross clear were ignored by VAR.
But regardless, he will know he should have done better as the ball eventually rolled in off Victor Lindelof.
De Gea was widely touted as the answer to Real Madrid's goalkeeping problem and when the deal to take him to the Bernabeu in 2015 fell through at the death, most thought it was only a matter of time before he made the Los Blancos switch.
Despite the fact stories linking him with Real have refused to go away since, in reality it's been a gradual decline for De Gea since that fateful August night.
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His international career has also taken a hit as Chelsea's Kepa has been preferred with United's stopper featuring in just three of Spain's ten recent Euro 2020 qualifiers.
The generally accepted reason for De Gea's lengthy delay in signing his latest deal was that he was waiting for a better offer from elsewhere.
But maybe now - with these two latest faux pas and his sloppy form since bagging the biggest contract of his career - it is becoming clearer why those offers were not forthcoming.
